Last night Tina and I were among many who attended the fourth film evening of the 2009 Leo Carrillo Film Festival...  

This time it was on a Saturday evening instead of the usual Friday evening.  It happened that since the 2009 Festival had been cancelled earlier this season, that a Friday evening wedding had been scheduled to take over the grounds where the Films are shown.

However, attendance for this film showing was even larger than usual, probably because it was on a Saturday night!  Or perhaps because the featured film for the night was 1943's 'Phantom of the Opera'?!

For those younger persons in the crowd, I was wondering if they would be expecting a 'HoRRoR film' instead of what this turned out to be... which was more of a 'romantic melodrama with comedic flair' instead! 

Here is the trailer to the 1943 film 'Phantom of the Opera': http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi110887193/ 

As you can see by the trailer, Leo Carrrillo had 5th billing in this film, behind Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster, and Claude Rains who were the headliners.

This film was actually a main feature instead of a 'B' movie, which several of the films that Leo played in would be considered to be.  However, even with 5th billing, Leo actually just had approximately 11 lines in the film!  He was Madame DuBois' vocal instructor in this film.

Charles Balteria, (pictured above top left), has been the public 'face' of the Film Festival for at least the two years we have been attending.  Our thanks to him for being a good public speaker and great 'host' each evening!  Last night before starting the main film he told us that Universal Pictures lavished Technicolor on this film, one of the first films to use color.

Even though Leo had only a few lines in the film, I would have to say that the film went over very well with the audience in attendance.  This film was Universal's long-awaited remake of the 1925 Lon Chaney classic!

However, Claude Rains who played the title role and was always a fine character actor, had refused to wear the kind of grotesque makeup that other Universal Pictures actors like Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff were wearing in other Universal films for this movie.  He was very leery of being 'typecasted' in this film, and would only allow makeup wizard Jack Pierce to apply a very moderate non-hideous scar.

Additionally, since it was 1943, the murders that took place were done very quickly and the film pace moved on, not showing every detail. Truly this was done very effectively and without being overly sensationalized.  You would almost think you were watching a romantic comedy / melodrama, especially with the 'Love Triangle' aspect in the film.  Or would that be 'Love Quadrangle' with three main male characters in love with the female lead?!

Tina, my youngest son Vinnie, and I also invited a couple with their young son to join us last night.  Below photos show Vinnie (shown at left in the bottom left photo), Alex (shown at left in the bottom right photo - the boys took turns shooting the photos) and then Michael, Tonya Mantooth, Dale Strack, and Tina.  The right photo also shows Brad Lousberg in the right foreground who was part of the Mens Group that 'sponsored' those from our Church that attended last evening also. 

The below left photo shows Tina LoSasso, Dick Swenson, Tina, and Rev. Diana Swenson who attended also from the Church.  A good time was had by all who came to this second Mens Group sponsored Leo Carrillo Film Festival outing!

At the immediate top right is a photo of Tina LoSasso holding one of four prizes that was awarded by Charles Balteria during the 'Trivia Game' portion of the Film Festival!  This was held during intermission time between the Cisco Kid TV Show episode and the Main Feature Film.

Tina is a very competitive person who loves to play to win, and was very pleased to be the 2nd winner after she answered a very hard trivia question.  She had to name two additional languages that Leo could speak fluently, out of seven total that Leo knew.  This after Charles told the audience three of the seven languages!

Not to be outdone, Michael stood up and waved his hat on the last question; what were the names of The Cisco Kid and Pancho's horses???  And No, Pancho's horse's name in The Cisco Kid TV Show was NOT Conquistador!  

So yeah, as you can tell by the number of blogs I've posted on Leo Carrillo's Ranch & Film Festival, Tina and I know our Leo Carrillo / Cisco Kid trivia, as we took home half of the prizes awarded last night!   As Tina would say "Woo-Hoo"!

There is only One More Night of the 2009 Leo Carrillo Film Festival should you be in the Carlsbad, California area next week.  Next Friday Night... on October 2nd!   However there will be NO Blog afterwards from us, as Tina and I are planning to be at the Long Beach Comic Con (LBCC) Friday and Saturday, and possibly blogging or Facebook Mobile(ing) from there!  So you'll have to look elsewhere for what happened at the Film Festival next week!

My thanks to Vinnie and Alex who helped me take photos at the Film Festival, (49 of them, so they can't be all used here!).  Plus our conversations with those we have met before at the Festival or just last night, like Denise, Anna, Sheila, Dee, Tina, Tonya, Dale, Dana and Greg.  Plus others from our Church who attended including Dick, Diana, Brad, and Debbie.  We've enjoyed the four films we've seen at the Film Festival this year and are sorry we won't be able to attend the fifth and final one next Friday...

Which reminds me... For more info on the Film Festival or just to learn about the ranch, check out the web site at:  http://www.leocarrilloranch.org/ 

Plus, if You would like to belong to the 'Friends Of Leo Carrillo Ranch', please check out their web site at: http://www.carrillo-ranch.org/